DLA Piper, Eversheds and Mayer Brown are among the firms to have won places on ARM Holdings’ inaugural legal panel.
The FTSE 100 technology company has handed places to 10 firms in total, with managing counsel Struan Britland leading the process supported by general counsel Philip Davis.
DLA Piper and Mayer Brown have been appointed to act on corporate and M&A matters across the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), US and Asia-Pacific regions, with DLA Piper having never worked with ARM before. The pair were chosen for their ability to handle transactions across all regions, while other firms narrowly missed out on mandates if they were unable to demonstrate global corporate capabilities.
The two firms will act on corporate matters worldwide, although spots have also been handed to Bird & Bird, Fenwick & West and Martin Hu & Partners for additional assistance in EMEA, US and Asia Pacific respectively.
New adviser Eversheds has been appointed as ARM’s single global provider of HR issues, including employment and immigration, as well as real estate and construction. The firm’s global breadth was singled out as being a key factor to the appointment, as well as its relationships with partner firms.
Eversheds will additionally advise on general commercial and technology procurement issues, with Fieldfisher and Mills & Reeve winning roles here too. Fieldfisher will be ARM’s primary adviser for privacy, data protection and online regulation issues going forward.
ARM has further retained US firms Winston & Strawn and Wiley Rein for patent litigation matters, as work is mostly handled over in the States.
While longstanding corporate advisers Slaughter and May and Davis Polk & Wardwell were not involved in the formal panel process, they have been retained by the company to act on regulatory issues in the UK and USA.
As part of the panel process, ARM’s Britland partnered with the company’s procurement team to ensure best practice and evaluated the choices alongside stakeholders from HR, facilities and corporate development.
This is ARM’s first formal panel, with 20 firms initially invited to pitch back in March. Firms were previously chosen by individual departments across the globe and the new structure has been put in place to better organise the company’s legal function, strengthen relationships with external law firms and control spend.
All appointments are set to last for two years when the in-house team will review its panel advisers. ARM’s internal legal team is currently made up of 60 lawyers, with 39 based in the UK.